Standard Training Camp, 18 June 2018

Hello Guides!

It is one of the biggest events of the year! This year’s Standard Training Camp(STC) has four main objectives: to provide time for each batch to bond and let them know one another better, to allow patrols to bond especially with the Year 4s, to provide an opportunity of reflection and growth for the Guides’ past years and to celebrate the Year 1s’ enrolment and the new leadership batch.

STC officially started with the batch activities, which were specially tailored to the batch’s areas of improvements. By allowing each batch to find out their strengths and weaknesses, they would be able to work on them and improve themselves after the Year 4s pass down.

Year 1 Batch Activity

Here is the storyline given: Hello Y1s! Since you will all be enrolled later in the afternoon, it is crucial that you know and familiarise yourself with some of the basics about Guides and pick up some especially crucial skills like communication and teamwork. This is just the beginning of a four year long journey that will prove to be enriching, and so we’re here to get you started off on the right foot!

This batch activity was split into 2 sections, the first of which was Cheers/Music and the second a treasure hunt.

For the first section, the Year 1s would be taught songs that are normally sung during 集合s. They are to be separated into two groups, with Patrols 1, 2 and 3 in one group and Patrols 4, 5 and 6 in the other. The first group would learn the 团歌 first while the second group would learn the 团 cheer first. Only one copy of the lyrics would be given, which is meant to test the batch’s communication skills, which are needed to ensure that every person is sure of the lyrics. After seven minutes have passed, each group was required to perform what they have learnt. They had to sing the song/cheer once together and had to reach a certain decibel: 100dB for the loudest point or 75dB for the average. After which, they were given another five minutes to teach what they have each learnt to the other group, which also tests their communication skills. Afterwards, each group repeated what they had done before, but with the new song/cheer.

For the second section, the Year 1s would be split up into pairs. Each pair had their ankles tied up with 白绳, which forced them to think about their partners so as to learn the value of teamwork and caring for each other through this. Post-its were scattered around the classroom, three of which had the letters “E”, “A” and “F” written at the bottom right corner of it. The Year 1s were to collect as many post-its as possible. There were a total of 10 post-its altogether, with questions that they had to answer. Some post-its contained letters which corresponded to numbers for them to open the lock of the box they had, inside of which had individually packed marshmallow candy. The juniors will have to at least answer the questions with the letters on it correctly in order to use the letters on the post-it to unlock the box. For incorrect answers, they were told the correct answer.  “E” corresponded with the number “5”, “A” corresponded with the number “1” and “F” corresponded with “6”, so the correct code involved the numbers 5,1 and 6.

Post-its and questions	Answers
Name all the patrols in Chinese. (to say the answers within 10 seconds)	九重葛, 龙船花，茉莉花，胡姬花，向日葵，牵牛花
Who is the 49 batch Company leader and Assistant company leader?	Amber, Clare
Name all the Patrol Leaders of the 49th batch. (post-it contains letter “E”)	Wenyun, Linmin, Chloe, Clara, Xinyun, Xinyu
Name 3 Guide Laws (post it contains letter “A”)	(accept any 3): A Guide Is Loyal And Can Be Trusted. A Guide’s Duty Is To Be Useful And To Help Others. A Guide Is Polite, Considerate And Respects Her Elders. A Guide Is Friendly And A Sister To All Guides. A Guide Is Kind To All Living Things. A Guide Is Obedient. A Guide Has Courage And Is Cheerful In All Difficulties. A Guide Takes Care Of Her Own Possessions And Those Of Other People. A Guide Is Thrifty And Diligent. A Guide Is Self-disciplined In All She Thinks, Says And Does.
What is the Guide motto?	Be Prepared
What does “PP” stand for? (post-it contains letter “F”)	Pandu Puteri
What is the Guide Promise?	I promise to do my best, to do my duty to God, to serve my country and help other people and to keep the Guide Law.
How old is 德明女童军?	50 years
What are the markers for standard attire?	(any 3): Hair tied neatly with a black rubber band, canvas shoes, socks that are at least 3 fingers higher than the back rim of the shoes, black watch, tucked in shirt, small and simple earrings, short fingernails
What do we call our home to our CCA?	团部

Reflection from a Year 1:

The batch activity was based on what each batch needed to improve on and for ours, it was our foundation. There were two stages in our batch activity for PDP which we had to complete together. We started with having to sing the 团歌 and the Company Cheer very loudly. Not many people knew the lyrics, tempo or tune. There was only one piece of paper with the lyrics given to us and we were given a certain time limit to learn on our own. We were split into two groups: one to learn the 团歌 and the other, learn the Company Cheer. After 4 minutes, we had to present in our own teams. The Year 4s corrected our mistakes and we were given 5 minutes to teach the other group. We had to crowd around one person holding the lyrics so that everyone could see and I was sure that there were some people behind who were unable to see the lyrics. It really tested our communication skills. It was also quite embarrassing as most of us did not know the Company Cheer and 团歌 despite having been in Guides for a few months already. The next task was to search for pieces of paper, answer the questions that were related to Guides and unlock a number lock with the clues we had. We had to pair up and tie our legs together while searching for the pieces of paper with the clues and that made the task even harder. We worked together and found the 10 pieces of paper quickly. However, we had difficulties answering the questions on the paper as we were unfamiliar with some. Lastly, we needed to find the password to unlock the lock on a bag. We were successful at the third try and were able to receive our treats. I was a little frustrated when we were trying to solve the questions as we were running out of time and some people did not help and were talking amongst themselves. If they had been participative, we would not have 过时. But all in all, I was glad we managed to work well together and tried to work on our weaknesses. From the batch activity, I learn that communication is very important. In addition, having communication enables us to put one another’s strengths to good use and helps us overcome challenges more efficiently. From the activity, I gained more confidence when I tried teaching my batchmates the Company Cheer as I was the only few that remembered it. Also, I learnt more about my batchmates —— their strengths and weaknesses. I realised that we weren’t familiar with the basics and our foundation was not good enough which troubled us when we tried to answer the questions. But, I was happy to have spent quality time with my friends and learnt the importance of teamwork. I enjoyed the batch activity very much and hope that there will be more of such opportunities to work with my batchmates in the future.

Year 2 Batch Activity

In this batch activity, the Y2s were grouped according to their various strengths and weaknesses, and this groupings were made with the hope of helping them leverage on their strengths and take note of their weaknesses. Afterwards, they had to build enough structures to reach their goal of 20 points within the time limit of 20 minutes.

Groupings:

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3
Willyn	Klare	Novelle
Le Xin	Kor Xuan	Heather
Xi Yin	Iris	Rachelle
Siqi	Hui Ru	Yu Tong
Jingwen	Nicole	Li Wen
Charmaine	Elizabeth	Shayna
Yu Ning	Xin Wei	Shao Xian

Structures:

These structures all carried a different number of points to be won if the Year 2s finished the structure and if the lashes were tight. Furthermore, the structures could only be repeated a maximum of two times. The Year 2s were given 1 copy of the structures that could be built. From each group, 1 person would have to voluntarily come up and the three people from the three groups would be given 3 minutes to decide what each group was to build which structures. In addition, the logistics would be taken from a common pile and they do not have to split the logistics.

The number of points of for each structure is as follows:

Wash Stand - 2 points

Shoe stand - 2 points

Camp tables - 3 points each

Wash station - 7 points each

Plate Rack - 3 points

Kitchen Dresser - 10 points

(Mug tree and wood pile to be crossed out as they do not require lashes)

The copy of the structures would be taken away once 3 minutes was up. None of the Year 2s would be allowed to look at the piece of paper after that. They would simply have to improvise and come up with a design that matches what was on the paper as closely as possible.

Reflection from a Year 2:

During batch activities, we worked together to build different structures for gadgeting. We were divided into three groups given a piece of paper with structures and the number of points awarded on it. Our batch then chose three structures for each group to work on for the points to total up to 20, where each structure could only be repeated twice. We were then given 20 minutes to complete the structures, but we had to ask for a 10 minute time extension. We built a dish rack, a shoe rack and a camp table. Other extra structures were also built as we did not score sufficient points. I felt that as a batch we could have worked better with each other and have better communication so we could have completed the task. We did not meet the target 20 points, as we had only built 5 structures to score 17 points. I think that the three groups could have worked more closely together instead of unnecessarily building structures too far apart from one another, making communicating with each other to discuss time extensions and which structures to build difficult. Although we tried to improvise by using items found in GSL such as the traffic cones for the camp table and the benches as support for the dish rack, we could have modified the structures to accommodate to the number of each type of gadget pole we had to ensure there would be sufficient gadget poles for all three groups, while still keeping the purpose or use of the structure the same. However, I think this batch activity allowed my batch to improve on our leadership, communication and teamwork. Some of my batchmates really stepped up to lead this activity and we all tried our best to cooperate well to complete each structure. Overall, i think this was a good opportunity to improve the bonds as well as teamwork in our batch and improve on our soft skills, such us our ability to work under a time limit and learning to improvise in certain situations.

Year 3 Batch Activity

In this activity,  all the Year 3s had to build a structure that represented the batch using the spars that were provided. There were also a few criteria that had to be taken note of: the structure could not  be too simple that it only takes 10 minutes to complete, but not too complex as only 30 minutes is given to complete the structure. The structure must also incorporate 5 values that the batch wanted to focus on developing during their term of leadership. There were 2 ICs, the new Company Leader and Assistant Company Leader, who were leading the activity, while the rest of the batch were free to aid the ICs if needed. After the briefing of the activity, the ICs were informed that they had to set goals as a batch with regards to the building of the Batch Structure. The goals had to encompass both the technical aspects, such as the timing to complete the activity or the quality of lashes, and the intangible aspects of the activity, like batch dynamics or bonding. In addition, every time the Year 4s 集合ed the ICs, the Year 4s would ask them about how their goals were moving forward from the current state where the structure was.

Reflection from a Year 3:

At the very beginning of the activity, we were really slow to get started, but after a while and when we finally worked out a plan to build a bridge, we started gaining momentum and worked a little faster. Although the new CL and ACL were the official ICs, some of us still gave our own input, which I feel is a good thing as it means that we do not completely rely on one or two people to do everything for us and and are able to showcase our own style of leadership in our own way. While one of us went to get the 麻绳 needed to tie our structure, the CL and ACL went to inform the Year 4s of the values and goals they had decided on and the rest of us arrange the spars in preparation for tying. Despite the progress being quite slow at the start, we managed to start working faster with a greater sense of urgency, trying to finish building the structure quickly so as to not 过时. In the middle of building the structure, we also made a few minute changes so as to better fulfill the criteria, while improvising other parts that had to be removed due to time constraints, which showed the adaptability of our leaders in unexpected situations. Eventually, we managed to complete the structure with the addition of a time extension, and one of us had to repeat the values we included in the structure. Although the CL and ACL told us of the values and goals beforehand, there was some difficulty in repeating the values, and we had also failed to complete one of our goals to have tight lashes as one of the tripod lashes were loose, there possibly being other loose lashes we were not aware of. While I am satisfied with managing to complete the structure, even with a time extension, I still feel that we have to work more on our communication, as evidenced by the difficulty in saying the values. This is especially important considering that we are the next leadership batch. In addition, we have to pay more attention to our lashes, as even one loose lash could jeopardise the structure and compromise the safety of every other patrol member.

After the batch activities, we proceeded to the mass game. In this activity, each patrol had to complete as many activities as possible and overcome obstacles in the game that came their way, and to arrive at the Finishing Line as fast as possible. The location of the finishing line would only be slowly discovered through the game as the patrols complete the activities required. The aim of the game is for the patrols to get as many points as possible. Different activities have different points. The catch is that each patrol will be unaware of how many points other patrols have. The Year 4s of each patrol will be given a Patrol Envelope that will have an instruction sheet (shown below), 1 Yield card, a Route Information sheet and a Score Sheet (to tabulate own points). They would have to take photos or videos as proof of completing the activities.

Instruction Sheet (will be sent to Y4s of patrol 1 day before Passing Down Parade(PDP) to familiarse and ask questions)

Dear Guides, we hope that whilst you enjoy this mass game as a patrol, integrity and honesty are kept in sight as well! Take pictures/videos as proof of the completed activity and do not use your phones to search for answers. Winning is not everything :) Note: Once you go to a station, you must complete the activity. (i.e. you cannot change station without completing the activity) **PATROL 1-3: send answers to Clara PATROL 4-6: send answers to Jillian
Component	Function/Role	Remarks
Patrol Envelopes (yellow)	Contains all the information as well as playing cards that you have.	What you are holding in your hand now is probably the patrol envelope.
Clue Envelopes (orange)	Contains the instructions for the activity you need to complete as well as detour cards, fast forward cards or yield cards. (Not every clue envelope has all the cards, it depends)	Has the “Route Marker” sign (see below) pasted on it.
Route Information	Route Information clues instruct the patrols where to go next. Such a clue usually provides only the name of the team's next destination; it is up to the teams to figure out how to get there. The destination may be given in a cryptic manner. You do not have to go to all locations; however, the number of points you can earn from each activity is NOT stated on the Route Information card.	Present in PATROL envelopes
Detour	A Detour presents the team with a decision between two tasks, each with its own pros and cons. Typically, one task is less physically demanding than the other but is tedious or requires some amount of time or thinking to complete, while the other is usually a more physically demanding or frightening option that, depending on the team's ability, may take less time to complete. The decision about which task to attempt lies solely with the team.	Placed ON clue envelopes
Yield	The Yield allows any patrol to force another patrol to stop racing for 10min. If a patrol Yielded another patrol, the Yielded patrol would be informed by the I/Cs and they would have to wait for 10min at wherever they are and not do anything. A team may only use its Yield power once on the race and must tell the I/Cs the moment they use it. A patrol may be Yielded multiple times.	Placed IN clue envelopes
Intersection	The Intersection requires each patrol to pair up with one other patrol and perform all tasks and make decisions together for 30min. In this case, all rewards of completing any activity would go to both patrols. Should there be no other patrols present when a given patrol arrives at the Intersection Route Marker, they must wait there until another patrol arrives, although they do not have to partner with that patrol and can opt to wait for another patrol instead. Teams are free to choose their partner patrol if multiple patrols are present.	Present in PATROL envelopes
Activity Instruction Cards	Contains instructions on activity as well as how many points the activity warrants. If activity is not accomplished/incorrect attempt, you do not get a mark.   In cases where a Detour card is present in the Clue Envelopes, there will be 2 activity instruction cards.	Placed IN clue envelopes (** Y4s are allowed to call another patrol using mobile phones to do the intersection activity together)

Score Sheet

Patrol: ___________

Location of Activity	Points Earned	Informed I/Cs? (✓)
Total Points Earned:

Route Information

Location (Clue Envelope #) - each location to have 6 clue envelopes for each patrol

#1 Croissants and Cookies

#2 Speech Day contingent

#3 Block G Level 3 Open Space

#4 GSL

#5 团部

#6 Counter outside the place that Concerts are held

#7 Block G Level 5 Open Space

#8  Corridor where the Big S Fans go

#9 Book Fair

#10 Where the 2017 Y3s ate for 3 days

#11 Relish In The Shade before Feeling Warm Every Morning

#12  学而不思则罔，思而不学则殆

“Croissants and Cookies” - Cafe

“Speech Day contingent” - outside MRL

“Counter outside the place that Concerts are held” - Registration counter outside PAC

“Corridor where the Big S Fans go” - corridor outside Hall

“Book Fair” - outside Auditorium

“Relish In The Shade before Feeling Warm Every Morning” - corridor near parade square

“ 学而不思则罔，思而不学则殆” - 正心园

“Where the 2017 Y3s ate for 3 days”- Hostel Canteen

Clue Envelopes and their Contents:

Clue Envelope 1
Location	Activity Instruction Card	Intersection (✓)	Detour (✓)
#1 Croissants and Cookies (Cafe) 5 POINTS	A patrol is like your family!  Draw your perfect patrol portrait at these locations in your batches within the patrol! Everyone drawn must be doing a different activity. (not just standing around but drinking a milkshake, eating a burger, making their own burrito etc.) Y1s - Beach Y2s - Mountains Y3s - PLTC Y4s - Classroom	-	OR Do 30 Burpees (take a time lapse/normal video)

Clue Envelope 2
Location	Activity Instruction Card	Intersection (✓)	Detour (✓)
#2 Speech Day Contingent (Outside MRL) 5 POINTS	It is incredibly important that we all equip ourselves with the right skills in order to earn a job in the competitive working world. So, each person from each batch has 30 seconds to convince the rest of the patrol why you should get this job! Good luck :) Y1 - Professional Apologiser (Originated in Japan) Y2 - Professional Elephant Dresser (Needed in Sri Lanka) Y3 - Professional Snuggler (Needed in Japan) Y4 - Human Scarecrow (Needed in UK)

Clue Envelope 3
Location	Activity Instruction Card	Intersection (✓)	Detour (✓)
#3 Block G Level 3 Open Space 7 POINTS	Everyone loves music, including us Guides! We have a 团歌 but now… it’s time to make a song for your own patrol! Each song is required to have 2 verses, a chorus and a bridge in the following format: Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus. One Y4 to send the completed song to Clara / Jillian! The genre for your patrol song is below: P1: Country (e.g any original Taylor swift song) P2: Rock (e.g. Panic! At The Disco) P3: Blues (e.g. Muddy Waters) P4: Rap (e.g. Kendrick Lamar) P5: Folk (e.g. Galway Girl by Ed Sheeran) P6: Soul (e.g. Adele)	✓ - wait for a patrol to come!

Clue Envelope 4
Location	Activity Instruction Card	Intersection (✓)	Detour (✓)
#4 GSL finishes first: 5 PTS finishes second: 3 PTS (if raft does not work aka built using unsuitable materials, 0 points)	Oh no! A plane crash has occurred and you and another patrol are stranded on the island. It is now a case of every man for himself, and you have to fight for your resources to build a raft that can float (obviously). On the table you will see all the materials that you will need. Each patrol is given 5白绳. When both patrols are present, each patrol to first take TWO items from the pile. After which, at every 1 min interval, you are to only take ONE item from the pile. The patrol who finishes building a steady raft first wins. This will test your negotiation skills. Materials provided: 1 poncho, 1 groundsheet, 10 long full bamboos, 5 short half bamboos, 2 plastic bags, 2 pails, 5 masheng, 10 中木	✓ - wait for another patrol!

Clue Envelope 5
Location	Activity Instruction Card	Intersection (✓)	Detour (✓)
团部 5 POINTS	Bounce 5 ping-pong balls into 5 cups (one into each cup) continuously, without any balls dropping out of the cup. You are to stand at the point marked “X” and not move the location of the cups. Take a video!

Clue Envelope 6
Location	Activity Instruction Card	Intersection (✓)	Detour (✓)
#6 - Counter outside the place that Concerts are held (outside PAC) 5 POINTS	Fill in the blanks:   There are 4 main musical eras in the history of music. What are they? The __________ (1420-1600) The _______ Age  (1600-1750） The ______ Period (1750-1820) The ______ Era (1820-1900) Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic Name these musical symbols： _________ ________ _______ Tenor clef, semibreve, demisemiquaver What key does this belong to? D major.		OR ✓ The “cup song” sung by Anna Kendrick went especially viral in 2012. 5 patrol members to do the cup song together and sing at least one verse!

Clue Envelope 7
Location	Activity Instruction Card	Intersection (✓)	Detour (✓)
#7 - Block G Level 5 Open Space 5 POINTS	All except TWO patrol members to find an empty space and plank in a circle. Then, one patrol member to put the basketball on each person’s back for three seconds (count out loud) and then move on to the next patrol member’s back. The other patrol member to video. Points awarded if ball does not drop.

Clue Envelope 8
Location	Activity Instruction Card	Intersection (✓)	Detour (✓)
#8 - Corridor where Big S Fans 5 POINTS	Categorise all of these places in the correct continents! Send to Clara / Jillian once done to check! No usage of phones by Y4s. Integrity please! (bracketed not to be shown on instructions) (North America) Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park Everglades National Park   Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve Flat Iron Building (South America) Iguazu Falls Salar de Uyuni Chan Chan Atacama Desert Torres del Paine (Asia) Petra Dome of the Rock Burj Khalifa Cairo Yakushima (Africa) Vredefort crater Banc d'Arguin National Park Ngorongoro Conservation Area Okapi Wildlife Reserve Selous Game Reserve (Europe) Nærøyfjord Dresden Elbe Valley Kvarken Córdoba Cinque Terre (Antarctica) Petermann Island Mount Erebus Cape Adare Mount Melbourne Admiralty Bay (Oceania) Great Barrier Reef Uluru Walls of Jerusalem National Park Te Wahipounamu Tongariro National Park		OR Hold full waterbottles in water parade position (waterbottle lifted in front of mouth with elbow parallel to the ground) AND name the five most populous countries in the world. China, India, USA, Indonesia, Brazil

Clue Envelope 9
Location	Activity Instruction Card	Intersection (✓)	Detour (✓)
#9 - Book Fair (outside Auditorium) 5 POINTS	Complete the following titles: ____ Night by William Shakespeare Paper ____ by John Green 卖 __ __ 的小女孩 The ____ by Lois Lowry Twelfth; Towns; 火柴; Giver Come up with a short poem in either English OR Chinese and include the following words: English: evergreen, paper, skies, flowers, lies, believe Chinese: 漂浮, 包含，珍惜, 隐藏, 牺牲	✓ - wait for another patrol

Clue Envelope 10
Location	Activity Instruction Card	Intersection (✓)	Detour (✓)
#10- Where the 2017 Y3s ate for 3 days  （Hostel Canteen) 7 POINTS	Everybody loves food! Everybody needs food! So everybody should learn how to cook food! With these ingredients: Lettuce Eggs Maggi Mee Soy Sauce Pepper and Salt Chicken Mixed Herbs Create your own unique dish (ONLY ONE). Use at least 5 of the ingredients provided and type out a detailed recipe.

Clue Envelope 11
Location	Activity Instruction Card	Intersection (✓)	Detour (✓)
#11 - Relish In The Shade before Feeling Warm Every Morning (Corridor near Parade Square) 5 POINTS	We all understand that warm, sweaty and sticky feeling after flag-raising every morning, so much so that we wish for rain. Since that hardly happens, build a makeshift fan! You can take as long as you like, but just remember that you may be missing out on other stations if you spend too long on this one. Materials provided: 1 box of 白绳,  5 half bamboos, 2 中木， 2 中短木		OR If you’re sweating already, why not continue sweating for a purpose? As a patrol, perform the following yoga poses and take a photo. (photos will be in the clue envelope. For photos with only 1 person, at least 4 people must perform it)
Photos:

Clue Envelope 12
Location	Activity Instruction Card	Intersection (✓)	Detour (✓)
#12- 学而不思则罔，思而不学则殆 (正心园） 3 POINTS	Who said/discovered the following? a² + b² = c² for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction “The quality of mercy is not strained” Air travel Pythagoras; Isaac Newton; William Shakespeare; Wright brothers

Reflection from a Year 3:

For the whole duration of the mass game, I was really excited, as there were many stations we could try out. However, it was when visiting certain stations that I realised the difficulty to them, as they tested our knowledge on things that many of us were unaware of. At times, I felt we were lucky to have people who had some experience concerning the questions we got, and at others the entire patrol, including me, were completely confused. Despite it being a competition, my patrol was not running all over the school trying to get the most, as we knew it was highly unlikely for us to get the top prize. Instead, we decided to take things leisurely and make the most out of the mass game to enjoy ourselves and have at least something memorable from PDP. While it as admittedly disappointing to not be actively competing to get the top prize, I still felt what we did was worth it as we, in a way, strengthened our bonds with each other.

After the mass game, the guides had to mass change into their uniforms and 集合ed for lunch. After lunch, it was letter writing for 45 minutes in Senior High classrooms. The Year 1s to Year 3s would be writing a letter to their future selves and the letter will be kept and returned to them after the Annual Training Camp(ATC). This would allow them to reflect about what they did in the CCA and would strive to work harder so as to improve themselves. The Year 4s would be writing a letter to their successors, for example the 49th Batch Patrol 1 PL would write a letter to the 50th Batch Patrol 1 PL. After the letter writing was the internal patrol passing down, where the Year 3s will hand over their previous roles to the Year 2s. Finally, there was the roll call, enrolment ceremony and the Passing Down Parade. The Year 1s were officially enrolled into Guides, while the Year 4s passed down their roles to the Year 3s.

Reflection from a Year 1:

During the enrolment ceremony, I was very excited that I was going to become an official Girl Guide and join the huge family like I’ve always wanted. However, I had to keep the excitement inside as we had to keep still for this ceremony. It was tough but it was all worthwhile. Awaiting in anticipation is thrilling but nerve-wracking. When it was my turn to go up to the Guiders, I was extremely nervous. I was worried that I would do something wrong and would embarrass myself. The whole process was quick and I was careful to not make any errors. As I watched the Year 4s pass down, sadness overwhelmed me. I know I’ll miss them and that they would no longer be there to guide us as they had for the past few months. Despite my sorrow, I was happy for the Year 3s who’d manage to gain their leadership role. I’m confident they’ll lead us well.

Reflection from a Year 3:

Although we were already informed of our roles beforehand, it was only when I officially received it that the realisation sunk in that I would now be part of the batch leading the juniors. Not to mention, it was really upsetting that the Year 4s were now leaving, as they were the batch we spent the most number of years with but we would not see them regularly at 集合s again. At the same time, it was exciting to finally become the leadership batch, to challenge ourselves to become better leaders, both to effectively guide the juniors and make the Year 4s proud. I believe that despite the various personalities within our batch, we will be able to bring the 团 to greater heights.

After the Passing Down Ceremony, time was given for each batch to change into the performance attire and practise for a while, then we headed to the Auditorium for the eagerly awaited performances. Lastly, each batch received their own badges from the Year 4s, similar to the previous batch.

Reflection from a Year 2:

The performance my batch prepared was a video skit and two dances. We filmed the skit during the June holidays in school and we had fun acting out the roles and parts in the skit, which was about the different types of 集合s. We hoped that the video was entertaining and showed that although CCA sessions may sometimes be tiring, we do enjoy and appreciate the effort seniors put in to creatively plan the different kinds of skills training sessions. For the dance, the music we chose was "good time" by Carly Rae Jepsen, which is a fun and upbeat song about making good memories and having fun in guides. I hoped that the seniors liked the dance that my batch performed, and we also enjoyed performing for them for the last time. We all put in effort to learn the dance during the holidays so we could put up a good performance. Thanks to everyone’s efforts, I feel like we did our best we could and hopefully the Year 4s found it meaningful and enjoyable. A few others from my batch also danced to “plz don’t be sad” by highlight, as we hoped that the Year 4s passing down would remember their experience in guides as fun and memorable, but not be too sad about passing down. The lyrics mean that we want them to smile more even though it’s sad that they will no longer be leading our 集合s, and we will miss them very much, we want them to be happy and glad that we have made so many memories and friends in guides. Although we tried our best and put in effort, I think we could have improved by rehearsing the flow of the entire performance, for example the transition from the video skit shown to the performance. As I was not very confident about performing on stage at first, I was quite scared to dance for the rest of the 团. However, the support and encouragement of my batch mates allowed me to gain confidence in the performance and I enjoyed performing for the seniors.

This marks the end of 2018’s STC! To the Year 4s, thank you for all you have taught us, and we will certainly miss you for the days to come. We will do our best to follow in your footsteps but improve ourselves as well along the way, so that you can be proud of us, even after you have passed down!

Published by:

Yu Ning

50th Batch Secretary